Tag Archives: Green Jobs

If this isn’t a good reason for the United States to quit sending money to the United Nations then I don’t know what is. According to Fox News they spent and astounding $288,700 per green job. Yes, that’s not a typo it’s two-hundred-eighty-eight thousand seven-hundred dollars for one job. While the UN claims less, this is what Fox has to say……

But according to documentation obtained by Fox News, the projects that generated those jobs have a total cost of about $1.68 billion—which would work out to a much more staggering average figure of about $288,700 per job.

I won’t spoil Fox’s fun so you can go to the source below and read all the sordid details. Why do we keep funding these crooks? Especially since we have an estimated deficit in 2011 of $1.5 trillion dollars. I say boot the UN out of New York and sell the property to Donald Trump so he can develop it into something that does something besides house a building full of useless bureaucrats.

Here’s a good one and you will probably be seeing similar stuff happening in California before too much longer. From American Thinker we get this from an item titled “MA Solar Plant to Close After 2 Years.” What? Green jobs unsustainable?

While the sun might be a constant source of light and heat apparently even constant Massachusetts government green dollars–$58,000,000 of them–couldn’t guarantee Evergreen Solar Company customers and a profit.

So just two years after opening a solar energy plant with great fanfare–and even greater state subsidies–the plant is closing and with it 800 jobs reports Todd Wallack of the Boston Globe.

It seems the Chinese have struck again by undercutting the market. I mentioned this earlier about a company in California called Solyndra who were visited by President Obama and are supposed to be the greentard panacea of jobs via manufacturing solar panels, but they already had to downsize and I would not be a bit surprised if they end up shutting their doors, too. They already downsized mere days after Prop 23 failed and left California’s AB32 global warming law in place.

California land of overpriced homes, over regulation of business and the second highest business taxes in the nation will more than likely drive Solyndra to another state or country that is more business friendly and may even drive them out of business.

You can throw in the fact that the Indians and greentards are already suing to stop solar plants in California and it could be the coup de grâce for companies making and installing solar.

From Kill CARB we have a piece by California Senator Bob Dutton about the green jobs mirage. Those of you in California should be aware of this. You may soon be in the unemployment line or find your employer just announced they’re moving to a more business friendly state.

In case you missed it, this piece was published in Capitol Weekly.

By Senator Bob Dutton

California’s experiment with global warming regulations reminds me of a story about a foolish, old dog who lost his bone in the water when he tried to grab its reflection. Similarly, California’s leaders risk sacrificing the jobs and industries we have today on a hope and a prayer that the “green jobs” and “green industries” of the future will be better and more plentiful than those we already have.

When Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, into law more than three years ago, he declared that the sweeping new regulations imposed by the measure would be “good for business.”

Since then we’ve learned these regulations carry a multibillion dollar price tag and will be the largest tax increase ever imposed by unelected regulators in California – call it the “global warming tax.”

The Governor also promised that California would “create a whole new industry to pump up our economy, a clean-tech industry that creates jobs, sparks new cutting edge technology and will be a model for the rest of the nation and the rest of the world.”

Since those bold proclamations by the governor California has lost more than a million jobs. The only thing that’s been “pumped up” is our unemployment rate, which has soared from 4.8% to 12.5%, far higher than most other states.

Despite mounting evidence that the global warming tax will hurt California’s economy and cost jobs, the Governor continues to insist it will create jobs.

David Crane, the Governor’s economic advisor, explained on CNN last year, “we don’t have to keep the same jobs we had before” to get real job growth.

Their plan for job growth, apparently, is to create a vast array of government programs and subsidies that help one sector of the state’s economy and hope they offset job losses everywhere else.

So far the results have been less than convincing.

Green jobs compose less than one percent of California’s economy. That’s right, less than one percent. From 1995 to 2008, California added only 42,000 new green jobs. At that rate of growth, it would take 89 years for green jobs to replace all of the other jobs California has lost in the current economic downturn.

Even worse, economists warn that, rather than create a surplus of jobs, the global warming tax will kill up to 1.1 million more jobs in the future,.

Clearly, green jobs won’t save us. We need other jobs too.

Yet California’s high costs and hostile business climate are driving the very folks who create those jobs to other, more business-friendly states. Since 2000, California has lost more than 600,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs. Even green industries are choosing to expand outside California.

Business relocation specialist Joseph Vranich sees the problem firsthand. His full-time job is advising companies who want to flee California. He recently noted that no one is calling him to say they’d like to move to California, adding that businesses in California face a “coming financial tsunami from AB 32.”

Many companies that compete in the global marketplace don’t have the luxury of passing higher costs on to consumers.

Consider CalPortland Cement. As a result of AB 32, the company cancelled its California expansion plans and is considering expanding in Nevada instead. The company also recently laid off 100 highly paid workers when it closed its cement operations in Colton.

Steve Regis, vice president of engineering at CalPortland says, “We’re not like other companies. We simply cannot pass our cost on to our customers because we’re truly a world market. We compete with China, so we’re really in danger.”

Others see a reality that California’s leaders ignore. Arizona recently dropped plans to participate in a cap-and-trade system aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Some Utah legislators want to follow Arizona’s lead. Even federal lawmakers are backing away from a cap-and-trade proposal, citing economic concerns.

Governor Schwarzenegger should follow their lead and put the brakes on AB 32, California’s global warming tax. He should insist that regulators’ actions not hurt any sector of California’s economy, nor increase the food and energy prices consumers pay.

If we work together, there’s still time to bring common sense back to government and private sector jobs back to California. Perhaps we can even teach an old dog new tricks.

Senator Republican Leader-Elect Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) serves as the Republican point person on jobs, budget and energy issues. Mr. Dutton has more than thirty years of experience in the private sector and is the founder and owner of a successful Inland Empire business. For more information, please see www.sen.ca.gov/Dutton

The Governator should pull in his horns, things are bad enough in California without this crap. Not to mention what global warming?

If you want to see how many businesses are either fleeing or refusing to hire people in California go Joseph Vranich’s The Business Relocation Blog and see what I’m talking about.